The Search for the Greatest Wrestlemania of All Time: Wrestlemania 22

Wrestlemania XXXI is almost here! This Sunday, from that fancy new football stadium in San Francisco (Santa Clara, actually), the wrestling year’s biggest night begins its fourth decade. In honor of this latest reminder that you’re damn old, we’re on a Search For The Greatest Wrestlemania Of All-Time. From now until Sunday, we’ll be streaming a handful of the best-regarded ‘Manias ever via the WWE Network and evaluating them. By the time Wrestlemania airs, you should be PUMPED UP for wrestling’s biggest night.

Today, we’re taking a trip to 2006, where the old lions still roared, and the violence was at an all-time high.

Event: Wrestlemania 22Date: April 2, 2006Location: Chicago, IL

Whereas some of the previous ‘Manias we’ve discussed in this feature have been representative of clearly defined eras in WWE history, Wrestlemania 22 (this was one of the years where the powers that be apparently weren’t satisfied with the branding power of roman numerals) doesn’t have that luxury. After the departures of The Rock (to the movie business) and Stone Cold Steve Austin (to … other things, though I guess he’s been in a couple movies too), the WWE spent a long time trying to figure out who would be carrying their company into the future. From a marketing perspective (particularly when it comes to kids), that man was John Cena, though his has been a career marked by divisiveness. Kids adored him, but he also attracted more boos than any ostensibly hero champion ever had.

Moreso than just looking for a new face of the company, though, the 2006 WWE as evidenced by Wrestlemania 22 represents an era that has now gone away: the ECW-infuenced extreme violence. Hardcore matches, ladder matches, daredevil dives, all of these things produced more blood in the ring than any Wrestlemania we’ve covered here so far. Bloodiest Wrestlemania ever? Very possibly. In 2015, Vince McMahon’s WWE has made a conscious decision to more to a more PG-friendly product. This bloody show has become an artifact as a result. But for any wrestling fans who were fans of bloody, “holy shit!”-laden matches, this is the Wrestlemania for you.

What Was Good

The “Money in the Bank” ladder match — a multi-competitor ladder match where the wrestlers fight to retrieve a briefcase, suspended above the ring, containing a contract for a future title shot — became a reliable staple for this era’s Wrestlemanias. This one, featuring Rob Van Dam, Matt Hardy, Ric Flair, Finlay, Shelton Benjamin, and Bobby Lashley, did not disappoint. At age 57 at the time, Flair took a suplex off the top of the ladder that still makes my eyes bug out.

The Hall of Fame induction ceremony — another event that’s become a Wrestlemania tradition — was a bittersweet affair, with the recently deceased Eddie Guerrero being inducted, as well as Sensational Sherri, who would pass away the next year.

The hardcore match between Mick Foley and Edge. By this point, Edge had become one of the best heels in the business, with a “Rated-R Superstar” gimmick in the old Shawn Michaels vein. But he had never been a hardcore wrestler. Enter Foley, the godfather of hardcore, and a whole lot of weapons. The match starts out slowly (there’s a spot where Edge spears Foley, who’s wrapped his midsection with barbed wire, but what’s supposed to be a gash on Edge’s arm is barely a puncture), but does it ever pick up. You ever wonder what it looks like when someone gets suplexed onto a bed of thumb tacks? (That. It looks like that.) The match ends on a spear through a table that’s been set on fire. I’m not sure what else you’re looking for.

The Shawn Michaels/Vince McMahon match had a similar kitchen-sink feel to it, with ladders and tables and garbage cans being employed at will. While it does feel like a bit of a waste to have an all-time great like Michaels used for a junky match like this, as enjoyable as it is. But the match is elevated by some great commentary (Jim Ross is rabidly anti-McMahon) and an elbow drop to beat the band.

While the match itself feels truncated and without much flow to it, watching Rey Mysterio win his very first world championship is pretty great, especially if you’d been a fan of Mysterio’s for as long as I have.

Triple-H’s entrance to the main event match, wherein he invents Game of Thrones five years before it ever premiered on HBO. (Yes, I know there were books.)

What Wasn’t So Good

Look, I don’t want to be mean, but if the celebrity guest from Destiny’s Child you tab to sing “America the Beautiful” is Michelle Williams? Maybe don’t have a celebrity guest from Destiny’s Child at all.

Any and all Wrestlemanias with Chris Benoit matches are going to be uncomfortable and unpleasant in light of the gruesome and horrific way his life ended. I’d suggest fast-forwarding.

Of the two women’s matches on the card, one is a “Playboy pillow fight,” about which the less said the better. The other, however, is an excellent wrestling match between champion Trish Stratus and challenger Mickie James. It’s just too bad that so much of the backstory to this match involved evil-lesbian cliches. I’m as big a fan of gay villains as they come, but (and this may shock you), the WWE didn’t put much thought or nuance into Mickie’s character, so it all just feels gross and exploitive. In wrestling! I know!

Speaking of gross: The Boogeyman. He’s disgusting and weird and he eats worms, like for real live worms, by the heaping handful, and the less I have to think about him the better.

The Chicago crowd was a rogue element all night, to the point where the announcers had no choice but to comment on it. Cheering for Mickie James to beat Trish Stratus was one thing. Booing Rey Mysterio was another. But by the time the main event hit, the crowd was LOUDLY booing John Cena and cheering for the overt villainy of Triple-H. As I said, crowds have always rebelled against being asked to cheer for Cena, a Mary-Sue-ish white hip-hopper who wins way too often. Whatever the reason, though, watching a match through the lens of fans swimming against the current like this is undeniably distracting

On Balance

I could watch that Edge/Mick Foley match another ten times and still not get sick of it. And the Money in the Bank and Michaels/McMahon and Stratus/James matches were great. But the crowd weirdness and the (resulting) slightly underwhelming main events keep this from besting the reigning champ.